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Bitcoin Gains As North Korea Fires Missile, NEO Drops

While the Tuesday missile launch by the North Korean government has been cited as a threat to regional stability, which could be a major factor that has drawn many to find succour in Bitcoin, the news that the Chinese government is considering – for a second time – the suspension of all initial coin offerings ICOs may have added to the spike in Bitcoin price.

Though North Korea’s fired ballistic missile early on Tuesday was over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island before it landed into the sea, the hurt seems to be felt more by the NEO platform which, as a Chinese project, could be seen as to be most affected if the suspension should take effect.

Dubbed the “Chinese Ethereum” meant for the running of ICOs especially those with interest in the Chinese as well as the Asian market, NEO’s upswing towards $40 for its native asset was punctured after the news of the suspension became known. While Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell by almost 1% to a near four-month low, and South Korea’s KOSPI index was down a similar percentage, NEO’s price took a dive after the full spread of the new development, flooring at about $33 which it had last seen earlier in August in the wake of its introduction on key cryptocurrency exchanges. .

Caixin reports that Chinese regulators including the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) are pondering oversight measures on ICOs. This is a follow-up to a meeting on August 18 in which PBoC officials and the banking and securities regulators reportedly discussed controlling the size of ICOs, strengthening information disclosure, requiring risk warning documents and even a temporary ban, according to Tencent Finance.

An element of the latest news about the Chinese officials, which caused a sharp market reaction especially in China to scrape off almost 20% of NEO’s value, is their collaboration with their US counterparts. Sohu reports that officials of both countries met last week with the purpose of coming up with a strategy for the blockchain technology and related financial regulation.

While the market has been grappling with these two key developments, the price of the top digital currency Bitcoin hits a new record high of over $4600. The new money that went into Bitcoin cannot be pinpointed. However, there are suggestions that the NEO drop because of China’s ICO ban news as well as its effect on other altcoins that followed suit out of fear selling to buy Bitcoin could be a top reason. Also, the Bitcoin Cash experienced a sharp drop too.

Coming in the wake of launching its first set of ICOs, what would become of the NEO platform would be determined in the coming days as the crowdsales for Japanese blockchain-based social media site ALIS and research content platform, Red Pulse, starts on September 1 and 10 respectively.